Girl, 6, dies in hospital after being found submerged, unattended in pool

Assuming that his six-year-old grandniece could swim without a float, a man left her unattended in a hotel swimming pool – with fatal consequences.

Andrea Hailey Tan Yan Ying was found fully submerged in the pool at Sentosa’s Festive Hotel about five minutes later on Oct 7 last year. She died in hospital 10 days later.

At the inquiry into her death on Monday (April 15), State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam said that she died of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy – lack of oxygen and blood flowing to the brain – and pneumonia following a near-drowning.

She noted that Andrea, who stood at 1.18m, was left unattended in the pool that has a depth of 1.2m – 2cm deeper than her height.

On Monday, State Coroner Kamala said that Andrea’s granduncle Ong Cheng Chye took the little girl and his three-year-old son to the hotel’s adult pool at around 10am on Oct 7 last year. Both of them wore swimming floats around their torsos.

Mr Ong then guided his son across the length of the pool before they got out and went to the jacuzzi.

The court heard that he did not inform Andrea that he would be leaving her alone.

Their grandmother, Madam Ong later spotted the girl’s float drifting in the water. She ran towards the pool and shouted for help after she saw her granddaughter fully submerged inside the water.

Mr Ong jumped into a pool and hauled the unconscious Andrea out.

A bystander performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her and the police were alerted at 10.36am.

Paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived nine minutes later and she was rushed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital where she died 10 days later.